CALIFORNIA FINE ART LANDSCAPE PHOTOGRAPHY

To acquire the skills and knowledge necessary to document this wide
array of subjects, a professional photographer must be willing to
dedicate countless hours to practice. Hobbyists seldom have the time
necessary for such mastery. This part of the article shows you ways to
approach various types of photography so that you get good results
with just a little effort and practice.

Seriously, most people buy cameras in order to photograph other
people and to document those special moments in their lives: births,
marriages, graduations, trips, and family gatherings. Each special
moment revolves around including another human being in the photo. Yet
so many of these pictures are, if not flat out bad, certainly
underwhelming. But people photos don’t need to be dull. People are
wonderfully interesting photographic subjects when approached
properly. They do many interesting things, present many interesting
looks, and connect with you on an emotional level because we’re all
members of the same species. Many of the problems you run into when
photographing people may be due to bad photography habits you’ve
developed over the years. If you never receive feedback about these
habits, you just keep on making the same mistakes and taking the same
bad photo over and over. The result is that unfocused, undirected
picture of someone that’s too far away. There’s no real emotional
content to the picture and there’s probably no real clue as to why the
picture was even made. Just doing something as simple as tightening
your composition can make a big improvement in the quality of your
people pictures. During the next few pages, I show you some other ways
that you can improve the pictures you take of people. In photographing
people, the first thing you have to decide is the type of photo you
want to take. Although a good, basic digital camera can deliver nice
results in any type of photography, some types of cameras are better
suited to one style of photography or another. In addition, a number
of accessories can give your images a more polished look. The
important thing is to choose equipment that gives you high-quality
results while providing you with enough flexibility to explore other
kinds of photography. Fortunately, finding this happy medium isn’t
hard to do. You can create a high-quality formal portrait with just
about any digital camera offering even the most modest of zoom
capabilities. Fancier cameras can make your life easier, particularly
if you’re trying to crank out a large volume of portraits. If you’re a
hobbyist who’s more interested in experimenting with various lighting
and portrait looks, almost any camera will do. The ways you can
photograph people fall into several different categories: portraiture,
candid, and glamour. These categories describe the feeling that each
type of image hopes to convey. Each type of photography has its own
requirements and considerations, and I touch on these differences
throughout the rest of this article. It’s not unusual for a
photographer to find a special aptitude or preference for one type of
photography over another. If you discover such an aptitude or
preference, by all means pursue it.

In simple terms, a portrait is any image in which the subject is an
active part of the photographic process. Simply put, subjects are
posing for a photo of themselves. The first category of portrait
photography is the formal portrait. This is the classic go get dressed
up, visit a photographer’s studio, sit up straight, smile, and get
your picture taken shot. This type of photo wants to show you at your
best. If the photographer can pose you so you look thinner and neater
and better dressed than you ever look in everyday life, she will
certainly do so. Likely too, the better she makes you look, the more
pictures you will buy. A good formal portrait is something of a study
in contrasts. People dress up in clothing they seldom wear. They pose
in a manner in which they seldom, if ever, stand in real life. And
finally, they hold positions they never maintain in real life. Back
when I did a lot of these, I used to joke that formal portrait
sittings were incredibly tense and uncomfortable, even though when
done right they depicted a family that looked relaxed and comfortable.
“You only have to look comfortable,” I used to tell clients, “not
actually be comfortable.” Needless to say, I don’t do a lot of formal
portraiture anymore. Before you get started photographing people,
consider the following list of necessary camera requirements for
serious portrait work:

Capability to trigger studio lighting. Usually
this means a PC sync cord outlet that connects the camera to the
lighting kit. One alternative is if your camera has a hot shoe; then
it’s possible to mount a wireless or infrared transmitter to the
camera to fire the studio strobes. A second, less desirable approach
is to simply use your camera’s built-in flash to trigger slaved
lights. (This is undesirable because it drains your camera batteries
faster and also because the built-in flash takes longer to re-cycle
than the studio lights, delaying your next shot.)

Capability to be mounted on a tripod. This may not
be mandatory, but I’d hate to have to shoot portraits without being
able to mount my camera on a tripod. It’s nice to be able to set up
your shot, get the composition just right, and then have the freedom
to walk up to your subject to adjust the head position, straighten
clothing, or do any of the other things you frequently need to do.
It’s easier to shoot portraits from a tripod mounted camera.

Remote control. Like many portrait photographers,
I prefer to hold a remote behind my back so that my subject can’t see
when I’m about to make the picture. All too often, even with this
approach, you end up with people who can anticipate the flash going
off and blink fast enough to ruin the picture. It gets much worse if
they can see your hand on the shutter button. A remote cable release
lets you move around a bit if you want to have your subject looking
off in the future. It also enables you to lean in, adjust the
subject’s pose, and quickly lean back out while taking the photo. If
you’re not using the remote shutter release, you end up taking your
eye off your subject, finding the shutter button, and then looking
back at your subject. This generally doesn’t work as well.

Formal portraiture also requires certain accessories to help you
create the best possible image. Here are the most important ones:

Lighting: Improved lighting is one of the things
that sets the formal portrait apart from the informal version. There’s
a direct correlation between the quality of your light and the quality
of your portrait. It’s possible to create a nice portrait using one
master light in a big soft box fired straight at your subject, but a
multiple lighting setup gives you a much nicer product. Most portrait
pros work with a three to four light arrangement, which provides a
main light, fill light, back light, and hair light.

Light modifiers: Because direct, unmodified flash
is harsh and unforgiving, it’s best to plan on some form of light
modification. This is usually done through accessories known as
diffusers (a flat panel positioned between the light and your subject)
and/or soft boxes (a panel mounted on your studio light that provides
soft, even lighting), that soften the light.

Reflectors: These tools are used to bounce some
light towards your subject. Bouncing light softens it, helping to
produce a nicer looking portrait. Umbrellas are a type of reflectors.
They’re mounted directly in front of the strobes (flash units), which
are then pointed away from the subject and toward the umbrella. The
strobes fire into the umbrella, which reflects the light on to your
model.

Backdrops: Most often, the backdrop is something
designed to distract as little as possible from your model.
Occasionally, the backdrop complements the event, such as a Christmas
tree and presents for a holiday image or the Titanic’s grand staircase
for a cruise ship portrait.

Posing aids: There are a variety of objects
available to help your model pose comfortably. These range from
pneumatic chairs, which can be raised and lowered as necessary, to
posing blocks (for positioning feet), to stylized objects such as
large numbers (popular for senior photos where you have the student
pose against a large number representing the graduation year).

To make shooting portraits less cumbersome, you can set up a home
studio in any extra room or space you have. Obviously, the larger the
space, the more things you can try. But don’t worry, many very
effective home studios have been set up in tiny rooms. It may limit
your portraits to head and shoulders shots, or tight compositions of
just two or three people, but you can still create interesting images.
Creating a nice formal portrait isn’t that hard. The secret lies in
helping people look their best for the photograph, something that
isn’t necessarily synonymous with simply looking their best. Things
such as good posture and a neat appearance are important. All too
often, your subjects may not have paid the level of attention to these
requirements that’s necessary for a professional quality portrait.
This is where you come in. Most formal portraits are done with the
subject in a seated position (multiple people in one image usually
requires a mix of standing and seated). Professional portrait
photographers tend to prefer pneumatic chairs that can be raised and
lowered as needed, but this isn’t a requirement. What is important is
for you to be able to seat your model in a way that is comfortable and
flattering. Normally this means that the subject’s feet are resting
flat on a flat surface. That’s where a chair that raises and lowers
comes in handy. If you work with a regular chair, having a set of
posing blocks will make your life easier. These are simply nesting
wooden blocks of different sizes that you can place under your
subject’s feet. An added benefit of these blocks is that you can have
people stand on them if you need to make them taller. You can make
your posing blocks by hammering together a variety of sizes of wood
blocks. Just make sure the blocks are strong enough for a heavy person
to stand on. Remember, the formal portrait process is about making
someone look the best they possibly can. Follow these steps as you set
up a formal portrait shoot and you’re likely to be satisfied with the
results:

1. Look over the subject’s clothing to ensure that the clothes will
display well (keep a lint brush handy) and the hair and make-up (if
the person is wearing any) are properly fixed. It’s always a good idea
to have a mirror handy so that your subjects can check their
appearance.

2. Give your subject some idea of how the process works without
overloading her with technical detail. I like to give subjects an idea
of how long the sitting will take and how many different poses I’m
planning to shoot. Telling people ahead of time that I’m making half a
dozen shots of a pose helps them stay relaxed and patient. Most
amateur photographers take one shot and they’re done, so people begin
to get impatient after the third shot is taken if you don’t warn them
ahead of time. You can always take fewer shots once you get started if
you feel you nailed a shot. Just tell your subjects they did a super
job for you, so you don’t need the extra images after all. I also ask
if they have a particular shot or pose they’re interested in (many
do).

3. When you have the subject seated properly, it’s important to
make sure she is sitting up straight. Most people don’t normally sit
up properly, so you may have to encourage this. The easiest way is to
press two fingers into the small of the back while gently pushing on
the front of the shoulder. Have your subject lean slightly into the
camera.

4. Position your subject so that her shoulders are lined up
properly. Proper alignment normally means at a slight angle to the
camera because the turned shoulders give a sense of movement to an
otherwise static pose. Turn her head so that it faces the camera, and
angle her face down slightly.

5. After you create the basic pose, return to the camera or to your
shooting position if you’re not using a tripod. From here, you can
still offer some slight direction such as asking the subject to adjust
her head position as needed and telling her where to focus her eyes.

6. Decide how to compose the shot. Vertical works best for most
portraits. Then zoom in. Unless your subject is wearing a wedding gown
or a prom dress, odds are it’s best to compose a tight shot. Most
portraits begin a little above the head. This extra space is referred
to as head room and should always be found in a classic portrait. The
shot extends either to the shoulders—the typical head and shoulders
shot—or down to slightly above the waist. An even tighter composition
(called the head shot) is used for model portfolios and identification
images. If you have a particular reason for wanting to show the entire
body, back up as much as possible rather than zooming out to a
wide-angle focal length. Although this may be impossible in a small,
home studio, every bit of extra focal length helps to flatter the
subject. Exercise care with the full body shot that your lights
provide enough coverage. Also be careful that the edges of your
background aren’t apparent.

7. Decide how to handle the subject’s eyeglasses and the potential
for reflected glare off the glasses. In the days before the digital
darkroom, glasses were the portrait photographer’s worst enemy. All
too often, an excellent image was ruined by the reflected glare.
Conventional retouching could only go so far and was prohibitively
expensive. It’s easier to fix such a problem in an image-editing
program these days, but it’s still better to do everything you can to
minimize the glare in the first place. When it comes to dealing with
glasses, you have several options for making your life easier.
Sometimes, a subject is comfortable having her photo taken without
glasses. More often, however, glasses are a part of her identity (as
in “No one’s going to recognize me without my glasses”), so it’s
better to try to adjust them by sliding them a bit forward on the
bridge of the nose. This changes the angle of the glass and frequently
minimizes the reflection. Another option is to try repositioning your
lights slightly, also to change the angle of the reflection. Even if
you can’t get rid of it completely; reducing glare as much as possible
makes your job easier when you try to fix the rest of it in the
digital darkroom.

8. Check the appearance one last time. If your subject’s clothing
is bunched anywhere, a quick tug should fix it. Hair out of place?
Have a brush or comb handy for fast touch-ups. How does the tie look?
Check the line made from the dress shirt’s outer layer down through
the zipper of the trousers. The two should match up. Poor alignment of
these items in a formal portrait is distracting, so ask your subject
to align these items before taking his place.

9. When you’re ready to snap the shot, ask the subject to smile or
give you the expression she wants to convey. Although most people
choose a portrait of themselves smiling, you do run into the
occasional subject who’s better photographed looking focused and
serious. Just remember that setting the expression should be the last
step you take before making the photo because it’s hard for the
average person to hold an expression for very long. It’s incredibly
frustrating when a photographer gets you to smile and then putters
about doing other things, while you feel that smile slipping away. Get
the subject to smile and make the photo! If you have any doubts, take
another shot.

10. Take the picture. If possible, keep the camera remote behind
your back so that your subject can’t tell the exact moment you make
the photo. Quickly scan the face. As soon as the expression is ready,
take the photo